Chapters:

On a dark night a kingdom known as Magneia launched a surprise
attack on the kingdom of Elegand. During Magneia's assault much
damage was caused to both Elegand's town at the foot of the
palace and the palace itself. With quick thinking from Elegand's
generals and soldiers, much of the palace personnel managed to
escape to safety including palace staff and the king and prince.
Unfortunately, casualties could not be avoided as many civilians
in town lost their lives during the attack as was a few members
of the palace staff when the castle was bombarded. Much of the
palace's staff migrates safely towards the neighboring nation of
Charon in the mountains while the royal family safely migrated to
a temporary safe haven. The next day, Magneia sets up perimeters
around the palace and through the town to show that they are in
control of Elegand.

Also escaping from the palace is a young group of palace workers
who became separated from the main group that evacuated to
Charon. Among them is Lief, a palace worker who still mourns the
lost of his adoptive mother, Lily, the former head chambermaid of
Elegand. With him is his childhood friend, Gwen who also worked
at the palace. Also in the group are other palace workers,
Arianna, an exotic beauty, Aiden, Arianna's older brother,
Lenard, a former homeless boy who decided to work at the palace,
and siblings Carac and Thea, two children who Lief evacuated out
of the palace at Lily's request who's parents were former palace
workers.

It has been three months since the Magneian invasion and Lief and
his friends have been on the road migrating south east. They
begin to head as far from Elegand as possible due to Magneia
taking over. They cannot go to Charon as it's in the west and
traveling there would require them to pass through Elegand once
again right in Magneia's sight. With no other friends or family
the small young group of seven decide to rely on each other as
they head onward looking for a place to stay safe. With no money
they occasionally stop at rest stops along the road to see if any
kind Samaritan will be kind and volunteer to pay for them to have
something to eat, fortunately this area has mostly kind civilians
of Elegand's kingdom who assist in their situation.

Traveling for a while, the group find themselves walking through
a grassy field. Together, Lief and Aiden help pull a wagon
carrying food, clothing and supplies they managed to obtain.
Aiden notices a tired look on Lief's face.

"Hey, Lief," says Aiden, "listen, take a break for a
while."

"A break, are you sure?"

"Yes, you look tired. We've been traveling for a while now and it
seems that you could use a break."
"Alright, thanks. I'll just take a small break for a little
bit."

Lenard is on the side of the road looking for anything someone
may had dropped such as pocket change. Both Carac and Thea are
asleep on the wagon. Lief walks past Arianna who looks up at Lief
and gives him a smile, though Lief barely notices and continues
past her. Gwen walks up to Lief, noticing his tired look. She
walks beside him and notices a slight sadness in his eyes.

"Are you sure?" asks Gwen, "Ever...ever since that night, you
seem different. Your not as happy as you once were. Please Lief,
if there's something on your mind..."

"No, Gwen. I'm alright."

As Lief turns away, she notices that he still has a sad look in
his eyes. 'You can't fool me, Lief. I've known you for too long
not to know how your feeling.' she thinks to herself.

"Lief...your still thinking about Lily aren't you."

Lief pauses slightly before coming to and looking down with a
shadowy look.

"A little, yes. I just wish I was...stronger is all. I could do
so much, if only I was stronger and just a better person."

"But you are a good person." says Gwen placing her hand on Lief's
shoulder to comfort him, "You protected the two children and I'm
sure Lily would be proud of you, I know she would be. Your doing
a good job of watching over all of us really, you and
Aiden."

"But it's not enough, Gwen. What if something like this happens
again, what if we run into another bad kingdom who wants to kill
and destroy. I can't save anyone."

"Don't think like that, it will just make you sick and pull you
down?"

"I'm just...I'm just tired of not being able to do more."

"You do enough."

"Not enough, I want to do more. I want to protect
everyone."

Gwen looks at Lief with a concerned look. 'What do I say?' she
wonders to herself, 'I don't think there's anything I can say
right now to make him feel better. All I can do for now is to
just be by his side.' Gwen walks to Lief and puts her arm around
his back and rubs it, continuing to walk with him.

A while later, the group comes up on a small restaurant and
decide to take a temporary break to eat and rest before heading
off. They enter and use spare change Lenard found on the side of
the road to pay for a meal. The group sits at a table where two
nearby men sit at a table behind them talking. As the two men
talk, the group overhears them.

"So your going to the village in the south east forest
then?"

"You talking about Edia? Maybe."

"Nervous?"

"Just cautious. They say there's some dangers in the forest, wild
animals and I want to be ready before I head there."

"You better hurry up and go there, they say Magneia is slowly
heading this way."

Hearing the last sentence, the group suddenly feel a slight
shiver.

"Yeah, Magneia's acting up a lot lately. They say Magneia made a
mess out of Elegand and are slowly attacking to expand their
nation. Not looking forward to seeing them."

"But you should be pretty well protected in the village. I doubt
Magneia will go there any time soon seeing how big and dense Edia
forest is and all."

"Hey, how far did you say this forest is?"

"It's about five miles to the south from here. The village, if
you remember, is just going straight through the forest."

"Got it, but didn't you say people get lost through there?"

"Sometimes, the village is pretty far into the forest so many
people take all these unnecessary routes and end up somewhere
deep in the forest. All they had to do was keep going
straight."

"Alright, as soon as I'm ready I'll head there. Hopefully I can
get to Edia village."

"Yeah, hopefully. It's a safe haven, though I never been there
myself either I hear that it's a pretty nice place, all peaceful
and with kind people. Magneia won't bother anyone there."

The two men later get up and head off on separate ways waving
goodbye to each other.

Later in the evening, the group finishes. They decide to camp
outside near the restaurant for the night. Once again, Carac and
Thea have fallen asleep on the wagon. As they set up camp, they
remember the words of the two men.

"A village in a forest to the south. Sounds like the kind of
place we've been looking for." says Aiden.

"Yeah, but didn't those two guys say that it was a dangerous trek
there, with wild animals?" asks Gwen.

"Yes they did. But it seems that if someone were to get past the
forest they would reach a nice place to stay. We would be
protected from this Magneia kingdom." says Aiden.

"Wild animals? Glad I found this then." says Lenard, pulling out
a hunting knife he found on the side of the road.

"So what do you all think, should we attempt to find this
village?" asks Aiden, "Could produce good benefits."

"...I guess so." says Gwen. She turns to Lief who's looking down
and sitting beside Arianna. "What do you think, Lief? Want to try
our luck to see if we can reach this village?"

Arianna taps Lief on his shoulder causing him to glance at both
her and Gwen, "Lief, do you want to go to the village?" asks
Arianna. "It could keep us safe for a while, better then
wandering around until Magneia catches up with us." says
Gwen.

Lief looks to Aiden, Gwen, Lenard and Arianna, all smiling
enthusiastically at him. Lief glances down putting on a slight
smile.

"If it's what you guys want and if you believe it to be safe,
then it's probably good for us to see if we can make it there as
we have not much to loose."

Everyone smiles back to Lief happily. "Then it's settled,
tomorrow we shall travel to this forest those gentlemen mentioned
and see if we can go to this village." says Aiden.

After camp is set up, they all go to sleep. As he lays down, Lief
looks up towards the stars. He looks over to Arianna who's
sleeping on her side near him, her face appearing to glow.

'Arianna, you look so pretty under the star light. I swear, I
will protect you. I may have lost one person I loved but I sure
won't loose another, this I vow. So for now, please rest easy, I
will not let anything bad happen to you.'